Black Forest Trip

With the short time of your trip, do you really have time to take in the Black Forest? It's quite a distance from Munich, Nuremberg and Rothenberg too. Your time there would be better spent in Southern Bavaria or Tirol (Austria) which is 2 hrs. south of Munich.

https://www.black-forest-travel.com/landscape/titisee.html

A few thoughts:

• I tend to agree with David that given the short amount of time for your trip, you will burn a lot of valuable vacation time driving to the Black Forest and then back to Munich. A smaller geographical area for your trip will allow you to enjoy German sites/culture/people more and German roads less.
  
• I don't know your travel experience in Germany, but if this is your first or second trip, I would not recommend the Black Forest as a stop unless you have a special reason to go there (e.g., seeking family roots). While the name "Black Forest" generates a lot of romantic ideas, there are more impressive things to see in Germany than it. Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed the 4 days spent there as part of my third trip to Germany, but I was blown away by the area around Berchtesgaden later on the same trip. The Bavarian Alps are far more impressive than the Black Forest and are a lot closer to the area in which you will already be.

Perhaps you can tell us what you are hoping to get out of this trip, and we can help you more -- hiking? pretty places? history? German culture? Cute German towns? We can cross out spas and bath houses from you initial post.

Whenever I see a Titisee recommendation, it brings back the memory of sitting with my hostess in my B&B in Gengenbach talking about options for things to see in the area. She said, something like, "Don't go to Titisee. Everybody wants to go there. It's full of foreign tourists. Don't go there; go to Schluchsee instead. There you'll see Germans." She then paused for a moment and said, "No, stop at Titisee; see the foreign tourists; and then get back on the train and go to Schluchsee and spend your day with the Germans."

That's what we did. Titisee was cute but VERY touristy. Schluchsee was larger and quite peaceful (we were there in May before the German tourists showed up). We had a great time there.

You are asking many very basic questions about the Black Forest, so I assume that your knowledge about it is limited. For this reason and because it's a LONG distance from Rothenburg and your other destinations, I must also assume that its inclusion in your itinerary is mostly arbitrary - it's just a place you have heard of that has a nice ring to it. But despite its name, it's not really a dark forest, just a scenic hilly region with some nice places to visit. But there are many such nice places in Germany whose names are less familiar to you...

Feel free to suggest any changes to the itinerary...

OK. Instead of piling on all those miles in the short time you have, let's focus on this request of yours:

"...scenic routes that we could take from Rothenberg?"

What about the "Fachwerkstrasse" driving route just northwest of Rothenburg? Wertheim, Miltenberg and Walldürn are nice old-world towns in the scenic countryside that you could explore.

What about the scenic Main River towns just north of Rothenburg? Sommerhausen, Ochsenfurt and Marktbreit are near each other and very charming!

What about the Castle Road towns? Lots to see there, and many are near Rothenburg.

What about the Romantic Road? It passes right through Rothenburg.

Thank you for all your suggestions, and we have decided to strike off Black Forest, a trip for another day.
We are not much into hiking, however, we are inclined to 'pretty places, history, German culture, Cute German towns'.
Since it is a short trip, we really wouldn't want to stop by towns that are really similar and we are trying to avoid the whole 'modern cities' vibe.

using the cheap Bayern Ticket -- good for visiting .../Reutte in Austria!

Even though Reutte is in Austria, you can get to it from Germany (Garmisch-Partenkirchen or Kempten) via the Außerfernbahn rail line, which goes through the Austrian Tirol. The Außerfernbahn connects to German Rail lines but has no connection to Austrian Rail lines; consequently it is run by German Rail, and the Bayern-Ticket is accepted for travel on it.

I didn't find Reutte to be a particularly attractive town, but other towns on the Außerfernbahn, such as Oy-Mittelberg, Nesselwang, or the villages of Pfronten in Germany, as well as Leermos or Ehrwald in Austria are worth seeing.